These storage devices are of alien design and have been reverse-engineered and mass-produced but can only be made from the material on Harlan's World. In the future, a person's memories and consciousness (termed digital human freight, or DHF) are recorded onto a disk-shaped device called a cortical stack, which is implanted in the vertebrae at the back of the neck. But hey, now that you’ve read this little refresher, you’re all set.The series starts over 360 years in the future, with most episodes of the first season set in the year 2384 in a futuristic metropolis known as Bay City. The founders, who are all still alive, are textbook Meths, and thus the term gets thrown around a lot. In season 2, Meths are again at the center of events, with the plot involving the founders of Takeshi’s home planet, Harlan’s World. Their riches make them the envy of everyone, which might also be why meths tend to live above the clouds, away from the lower, dirtier existence of the less fortunate. They’re the only people who can afford the technological equivalent of immortality in “Altered Carbon,” or at least the closest thing to it. ![]() The term “meth,” then, is a direct reference to rich people who are incredibly old and have lived unnaturally long lives. He remembers the uprising that Takeshi was part of some 250 years before the main action of the show, in fact - but Takeshi was in storage, while Bancroft has been alive and consciousness all that time. There’s no shock to your consciousness, so you don’t go insane from the constant body swapping.Īlso Read: TV Shows You Should Binge-Watch Right Now, From 'OITNB' to 'Better Call Saul' (Photos)Īs a result, Bancroft is one of the oldest people ever. While switching sleeves degrades the consciousness in your Stack over time because your mind has trouble acclimating to the unnatural state of being placed into new bodies over and over, replacing a Stack into your own clone gets around this issue. Next, Bancroft has a supply of clones of his own original body, kept in cold storage. For most people, if their Stack is destroyed, that’s the end of the line, but a meth can pay the insane cost of a backup that would allow them to, theoretically, live beyond the destruction of their Stack. First, he can create backups of his consciousness and have them stored on a secure satellite, in case he’s killed. Bancroft is so insanely rich that he can do two things most people can’t. So in season 1 the meth we get to know the best is Laurens Bancroft (James Purefoy), the guy that series protagonist Takeshi Kovacs (Joel Kinnaman) works for. In “Altered Carbon,” the most long-lived people are the ones who have the insane wealth necessary to get around these complications. They might change bodies now and again, but bodies are expensive, and there’s another big risk: Apparently, changing sleeves too many times damages your consciousness (basically driving you permanently insane). Not everyone can afford to live forever, however. In “Altered Carbon,” switching into a new body, or “sleeve,” is pretty common, and doing so extends people’s lifespans considerably. The result is that even if your body is killed, as long as your Stack is undamaged it can be inserted into a new body, allowing you to go on living, at least in theory. The primary concept that informs the show’s world, and thus the esoteric sci-fi concept that is mentioned most often, is the “Stack,” a small computer inserted into people’s brains when they turn one year old, on which a person’s consciousness is installed like software. So we’re gonna help you out a little bit by explaining the basics, like this whole “Meths” thing they keep talking ahout. ![]() And while, yeah, you may not have much else to do during your coronavirus quarantine other than watch TV and think real hard about what you’re watching, I don’t think any of us really wants to think too hard about anything right now. It just seems that way because this fictional sci-fi universe has a ton of its own lingo that you generally have to absorb through context. While “Altered Carbon” on Netflix might seem like an overly complicated show sometimes, it really isn’t. We’re just doing a quick refresher on the weird terminology of the series, so you don’t have to worry about having season 2 spoiled.) (Note: This post contains light spoilers for season 1 of “Altered Carbon” on Netflix.
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